THE club isn’t ready for it. The stadium and training facilities aren’t ready either.

But Morton hitman Peter MacDonald believes the squad of players at Cappielow ARE equipped to play in the SPL.

Allan Moore’s side are eight points clear at the top of the First Division and face closest rivals Partick Thistle in Greenock today.

A win for Ton will put them in pole position for promotion, despite the Jags having three games in hand.

MacDonald admits that if Moore’s boys do pull it off, massive upgrades will be required at Cappielow – a ground that hasn’t seen top-flight football for 26 years.

But he’s adamant the pool of players Moore has assembled are more than ready to go up. He said: “Realistically, we’re not an SPL club right now. The stadium is nowhere near good enough, neither is the training ground.

“But the one thing that is ready is the squad and the manager. So we’ll take it if it comes along.

“Hopefully the club will be making plans to upgrade everything if we go up. The chairman will sort it because the whole of Greenock and Port Glasgow are behind us right now.

“When I came here, the gaffer told me about the players he wanted to bring in. I’d played with a lot of them like Kevin Rutkiewicz and Willie Dyer. He’d already signed Mark McLaughlin and was going after Davie Graham so I was thinking it was a great spine.

“I thought if we assembled that type of squad we could do it because experience counts for a lot in this league.

“Personally, I’m ready for another crack at the SPL – and the rest of the boys would relish it.

But for now we must concentrate on the Thistle game.

“It’s vital we get the three points but it will be very difficult because Thistle will come at us whenever they can and they’re a good side.”

MacDonald has been in the game for 12 seasons but insists today’s clash at Cappielow is up there with the most important he’s ever been involved in.

Thistle will play their first match since manager Jackie McNamara left to take over Dundee United but Peaso expects the Jags players to get a lift from having club legend Alan Archibald in charge.